Spread the word! Mass Poetry Festival 15 days away! Oct 15, 16, 17, 18

Dear Poet and Poetry Supporter,

We are just 15 days from the state-wide opening events of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Many of our writing workshops on Saturday are sold out; if you're interested, get your tickets now and tell your friends to do the same. The Poetry Fest Sessions in Cambridge on Sunday evening has almost half of its 100 seats already reserved. The Saturday evening reading with Louise Gluck and Robert Pinsky followed by Ann Waldman and Afaa Michael Weaver with 500 seats already has 267 seats reserved. We can make sure there are more seats available for a large event but only if we know in advance. So please sign up and get your friends to do the same.

Festival Schedule

Thurs (15th)
Fri (16th)
Sat (17th)
Sun (18th)
View all events

In last week's email we talked about all of the events state-wide on Thursday night. Today we're going to talk about our exciting program on Friday in Lowell. It starts with workshops for more 200 high school students from all over the state. At 1:30 a select group of high school poets will read their work and compete for the prize of reading the next day at some of our larger readings. This reading of some of the best young poets in the state is open to the public; get your tickets today:
http://highschoolpoets.eventbrite.com/

The same afternoon, college poets are taking over Lowell City Hall. As guests of the city, college poets will be read their work at 3:00, with undergraduates from UMass Lowell, UMass Boston, Tufts, Salem State, Fitchburg State, Holy Cross and WPI participating. This is open to the public. Get your tickets to the intercollegiate reading online now: http://intercollegiate.eventbrite.com/

Following the reading, there will be two writing workshops, one for undergraduate college poets and one for poets in Master of Fine Arts in Writing programs around the state:

College: Developing a writing community
Jill McDonough (Moderator), Fred Marchant, Jennifer Fleisher, Cassandra Cleghorn

Life after the MFA
Stephen Cramer (Moderator), Joan Houlihan, Jeffrey Levine, Joyce Peseroff

These workshops are for undergraduate and MFA students only. At 6:00, the MFA poets will read for the public - also at City Hall, 375 Merrimack Street, Lowell - and everyone is welcome to attend. Get your tickets today: http://mfa.eventbrite.com/

Friday Evening
The evening features a major Festival presentation in collaboration with the Urban Village Arts Series at 7:30 at Lowell High School Auditorium, 50 French Street. Headlining the event will be Michael Casey, Caleb Neelon, Capoeira Rosa Rubra/Mestre Calango, and poet Jessica Smith. Get your tickets today: http://uvas.eventbrite.com/

Lowell Poetry Network member Dave Robinson created the Urban Village Arts Series (UVAS) in downtown Lowell after witnessing poet Quincy Troupe's Artists on the Cutting Edge program at the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, in California. Troupe em-ceed each of his events (4 Thursdays in April for 11 years) and always presented a fiction writer, a musician, and a poet to end the evening. When Robinson moved back to his hometown of Lowell he joined the Lowell Poetry Network. In its first few seasons, UVAS has partnered with UMass Lowell, the Lowell Heritage Partnership, the Cultural Organization of Lowell to Brew'd Awakening Coffehaus, Bootstrap Productions, Lowell National Historical Park and the Lowell Cultural Council.

For this year's Massachusetts Poetry Festival UVAS has called together poet Jessica Smith, graffiti artist/muralist Caleb Neelon, Mestre Calango of Capoeira Rosa Rubra and poet Michael Casey (Yale Younger Poet award winner) to deliver an eclectic and powerful set of performances. We are excited to announce that Christopher Lydon will be our esteemed em-cee!

What You Can Do
Register to attend
Spread the Word [print this poster]
Donate
UVAS is a free event! UVAS is brought to you by the Lowell Poetry Network, Bootstrap Productions, Lowell Cultural Council, the Cultural Organization of Lowell, UMass Lowell Office of Community and Cultural Affairs, Mary Bacigalupo Fund, Lowell Heritage Partnership, Lowell: the Flowering City, the ghost of Renovation Journal and private donations. Special thanks to Brew'd Awakening Coffeehouse for catering this year's shows. Get your tickets today:
http://uvas.eventbrite.com/

Poets with New Books - All Afternoon Saturday
Finally, we would like to draw your attention to the unusual marathon sequential reading that will start at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday in Lowell. 28 Massachusetts poets each of whom has published a new full length book of poetry will be reading from their new books, one after the other at Barnes & Noble Downtown UMass Lowell Bookstore, 151 Merrimack St. For a full line up of all the participating poets and their times to read - and to reserve a seat - please click here to get a ticket:
http://sequential.eventbrite.com/

While they are reading, there will be a table at the Small Press Fair where we will be selling their books. So check out the amazing list of poets, pick your times to listen to them, and come by the Small Press Fair first to purchase their new books. Read more about the Small Press Fair here.

And as always, please spread the word about the Festival to your friends. And click here to make a donation - we now have less than $2,000 left to raise to fully fund the Festival!

Thank you for everything you do for poetry.

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival Organizing Committee

Michael Ansara
Charles Coe
Suzz Cromwell
Derek Fenner
Ryan Gallagher
Chloe Garcia-Roberts
Jacquelyn Malone
Paul Marion
Nicco Mele
LZ Nunn
Dave Robinson
Walter Wright